Message  of  the 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #86 

i  DTTlBTSflDl 

##6 


MESSAGE 


OF 


THE  PRESIDENT, 


AXD  REPORT  OF 


ALBERT    PIKE, 


COMMISSIONER  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES  TO  THE 
INDIAN  NATIONS  WEST  OF  ARKANSAS, 
OF   THE  RESULTS  OF  HIS  MISSION. 


RICHMOND: 

ENQUIRER     BOOK     AND     JOB       PRESS. 
TYLER,  WISE,  ALLEGKE  &  SMITH. 

ISftl. 


MESSAGE. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

Richmond,  Dec.  12,  1861. 

To  the  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  : 

I  submit  for  your  constitutional  action,  treaties  recently 
made  with  the  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw,  Creek,  Seminole 
and  Cherokee  Tribes  of  Indians. 

In  pursuance  of  a  resolution  passed  by  Congress  the  5th 
day  of  March,  1861,  I  appointed  Albert  Pike,  a  citizen  of 
Arkansas,  Commissioner  of  this  Government  to  all  the  In- 
dian Tribes  West  of  Arkansas  and  South  of  Kansas.  His 
powers  and  duties  were  not  defined  in  that  resolution,  but 
on  the  21st  of  May,  1861,  Congress  passed  an  "Act  for 
the  protection  of  certain  Indian  Tribes,"  by  which  the  gen- 
eral policy  of  Congress,  in  reference  to  those  tribes,  was 
more  fully  declared.  Considering  this  act  as  a  declaration 
by  Congress  of  our  future  policy  in  relation  to  those  Indians, 
a  copy  of  that  act  was  transmitted  to  the  Commissioner, 
and  he  was  directed  to  consider  it  as  his  instructions  in  the 
contemplated  negotiations.  The  general  policy  of  that  act 
is  the  basis  of  the  Treaties  herewith  submitted ;  but,  in  re- 
lation to  pecuniary  obligations,  there  is  a  material  departure 
which  will  be  more  fully  referred  to  in  its  appropriate  con- 
nection. 

The  general  provisions  of  all  the  treaties  are  similar,  and 
in  each,  the  Confederate  States  assume  the  guardianship 
over  the  tribe  and  become  responsible  for  all  the  obligations 
to  the  Indians,  imposed  by  former  treaties  on  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States.  Important  modifications  arc 
proposed  in  favor  of  the  respective  local  governments  of 
these  Indians,  to  which    your    special    attention  is  invited. 


That  their  advancement  in  civilization  justified  an  enlarge- 
ment of  their  power  in  that  regard,  will  scarcely  admit  <>f  a 
■doubt,  hut  whether  the  proposed  concessions  in  favor  of  their 
local  governments  are  within  the  bounds  of  a  wise  policy, 
may  well  claim  your  serious  consideration.  In  this  cornier 
tion,  your  attention  is  specially  invited  to  the  clauses,  giving 
to  certain  tribes  the  unqualified  right  of  admission  as  a  State 
into  the  compact  of  the  Confederacy,  and.  in  the  mean 
time,  allowing  each  of  these  tribes  to  have  a  delegate  in 
Congress. 

These  provisions  are  regarded  not  only  as  impolitic,  but 
unconstitutional,  it  not  being  within  the  limits  of  the  treaty 
making  power,  to  admit  a  State  or  to  control  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  the  matter  of  admission  to  its  privileges. 
I  recommend  that  the  former  provision  be  rejected  and  that 
the  latter  be  so  modified  as  to  leave  the  question  to  the  fu- 
ture action  of  Congress,  and,  also,  do  recommend  the  rejec- 
tion of  those  articles  in  the  treaties  which  confer  upon  In- 
dians the  right  to  testify  in  the  State  Courts,  believing  that 
the  States  have  the  power  to  decide  that  question,  each  for 
itself,  independently  of  any  action  of  the  Confederate 
Government. 

The  pecuniary  obligations  of  these  treaties  are  of  great 
importance.  Apart  from  the  annuities,  secured  to  them  by 
former  treaties,  and  which  we  are  to  assume  by  those  now 
submitted,  these  tribes  have  large  permanent  funds  in  the 
hands  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  as  their 
Trustee.     These  funds  may  be  divided  into  three  classes. 

1st.  Money,  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
stipulated  to  invest  in  its  own  stock  or  stocks  of  the  States, 
and  which  has  been  partly  invested  in  its  own  stocks,  and 
partly,  uninvested,  remains  in  its  treasury,  but  upon  which 
it  is  bound  to  pay  interest. 

2d.  Funds,  invested  in  the  stocks  of  States  not  members 
of  this  Confederacy. 

3d.  Money,  invested  in  stocks  of  States  now  members  of 
this  Confederacy. 

These  three  classes  include  all  the  important  pecuniary 
obligations  involved  in  these  treaties,  except  interest,  col- 
lected by  the  Federal  Government  and  not  paid  over  to  the 
Indians,  and  arrearage  of  annual  payments,  due  under  ex- 
isting treaties,  to  which  exceptions  a  further  notice  will  be 
given.  By  the  treaties,  now  submitted  to  you,  the  first  and 
second  class  are   absolutely  assumed  by  this    Government ; 


but  this  Government  only  undertakes,  as  Trustee,  to  collect 
the  third  class  from  the  States  which  owe  the  money,  and 
pay  over  the  amounts  to  the  Indians  when  collected. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  Indians  and  ourselves  that  the 
amounts,  embraced  in  classes  one  and  two,  are  relatively 
small,  and  the  obligations  incurred  by  their  assumption  can- 
not be  onerous,  as  the  amount,  due  by  States  of  the  Con- 
federacy on  account  of  investments  in  the  funds  of  Northern 
Indians,  considerably  exceeds  the  amount  to  be  assumed 
under  this  provision  of  the  treaties.  We  thereby  have  the 
means  to  compel  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  do 
justice  to  the  Indians  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Confed- 
erate States,  or  to  indemnify  ourselves  for  its  breach  of 
faith. 

By  the  treaty  with  the  Cherokecs,  we  undertake  to  ad- 
vance one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  the  inter- 
est of  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  educational  purposes,  on 
what  are  known  as  the  Cherokee  neutral  lands,  lying  between 
the  State  of  Kansas  and  the  Cherokee  Territory,  for  which 
the  Indians  paid  the  United  States  Government  five  hundred 
thousand  dollar.-,  and  which  lands  we  guarantee  to  the  In- 
dians  against  the  hazard  of  being  lost  by  the  fortune  i 
or  ceded  by  treaty  of  peace. 

I  herewith  sttibmit  to  you  estimates  of  the  entire  pecu- 
niary obligations  assumed  by  these  treaties,  in  tabular 
exhibits,  "  A  and  B.*'  They  arc  generally  stated  with  great 
minuteness  in  the  treaties,  but  I  have  caused  them  to  be  ab- 
stracted and  put  in  tabular  form  for  more  convenient  refer- 
ence. I  also  submit  to  you  the  report  of  Albert  Pike,  the 
Commissioner,  which  contains  a  history  of  his  negotiations 
and  submits  his  reasons  for  a  departure  from  his  instructions 
in  relation  to  the  pecuniary  obligations  to  be  incurred. 

In  view  of  the  circumstances  by  which  we  are  surrounded, 
the  great  importance  of  preserving  peace  with  the  Indians 
on  the  frontier  of  Texas,  Arkansas  and  Missouri,  and  not 
least  because  of  the  spirit  these  tribes  have  manifested  in 
making  common  cause  with  us  in  the  war  now  existing,  I 
recommend  the  assumption  of  the  stipulated  pecuniary  ob- 
ligations and,  with  the  modifications  herein  suggested,  that 
the  treaties  submitted,  be  ratified. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


REPORT   OF    ALBERT    PIKE 

Commissioner  of  the  Confederate  States  to  the  Indian 

Nations  West  of  Arkansas — of  the 

results   of    his   7nission. 


The.  President  of  the  Confederate  States : 

Sir  :  Early  in  May  of  the  present  year,  I  received  your 
letter  of  9th  March,  tendering  to  me  the  appointment  of 
Commissioner  to  the  Tribes  of  Indians  West  of  Arkansas, 
and  commissioning  me  to  convey  to  them  assurance  of  the 
good  will  of  the  Confederate  States  towards  them. 

I  had  previously  been  indirectly  informed  of  my  appoint- 
ment ;  had  accepted,  by  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and 
had  been  directed  by  him,  to  act  on  your  letter  at  my  dis- 
cretion, until  further  instructions. 

On  the  16th  of  May,  the  Secretary  of  State  directed  me 
by  telegram  to  proceed  to  the  Indian  country  and  embody  a 
Regiment  of  Choctaws,  one  of  Creeks  and  one  of  Chero- 
kees,  to  which  it  was  promised  arms,  &c,  would  be  fur- 
nished. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  Indian  country,  I  desired  to  go 
to  Montgomery,  obtain  funds  to  defray  my  expenses,  and 
receive  full  instructions  in  regard  to  my  powers  and 
duties. 

But  the  great  apprehension  existing  on  the  frontier  of 
Arkansas,  in  regard  to  the  temper  of  the  Indians,  the  fear 
of  hostilities  on  their  part,  and   the  number  of  letters  re- 


8 

ceived  by  mo,  urging  me  to  hasten  to  the  Cherokee  country, 
lest  I  might  be  too  late,  induced  me  to  change  my  purpose, 
and  proceed  to  that  country  at  once,  instead  of  first  going 
to  and  treating  with  the  Choetaws  and  Chickasaws,  who  had 
declared  their  independence  of  the  Northern  States,  and  their 
readiness  to  treat  with  tnc  Confederate  States  ;  which 
I  wished  to  do,  and  next  to  treat  with  the  Creeks  and  Semi- 
noles,  for  the  moral  effect  which  treaties  with  them  would 
produce  on  the  Cherokees. 

On  the  21st  of  May  I  left  Little  Hock  by  steamboat  for 
Fort  Smith,  which  place  I  reached  on  the  24th. 

The  only  funds  received  by  me  from  the  Government  of 
the  Confederate  States,  for  the  purposes  of  my  mission, 
until  after  it  was  ended,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  October, 
were  sixty  dollars,  which  I  received  from  an  agent  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Indian  affairs,  in  the  latter  partof  June. 
The  Convention  of  the  people  of  Arkansas  having  request- 
ed me  to  act  as  Commissioner  of  that  State  also,  advanced 
me  for  my  expenses  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars,  which, 
as  I  did  not  act  in  that  capacity,  I  have  repaid  to  the  Treas- 
ury of  the  State,  since  my  return. 

At  Fort  Smith,  I  procured  from  the  Brigade  Quartermas- 
ter of  Gen.  McCulloch,  an  ambulance  and  four  mules  for 
transportation  of  the  baggage  and  provisions  of  myself  and 
party;  which  I  thought  would  perhaps  be  sufficient,  and 
with  which  I  could  travel  more  rapidly  than  with  a  wagon. 
I  found  this  impracticable  afterwards,  and  had  to  procure  at 
the  North  Fork  of  the  Canadian,  about  the  middle  of  July, 
a  wagon  and  four  mules  with   a  driver  in  addition. 

It  being  in  the  highest  degree  important  that  the  commu- 
nication of  our  Government  with  the  Indian  nations  and 
tribes  should  be  at  once  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  that 
before  maintained  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  the  change  of  Government  should  not  be  accom- 
panied by  any  change  of  Agents,  that  might  tempt  the  In- 
dians to  take  sides  against  us  upon  a  collateral  matter,  I 
requested  Elias  Hector,  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs, 
to  continue  to  execute  his  powers  and  perform  the  duties  of 
his  office,  under  the  Confederate  Government  ;  and  sent  the 
same  request  by  letter  to  John  Crawford,  Agent  for  the 
Cherokees,  Samuel  M.  Rutherford,  Agent  for  the  Seminolcs, 
Douglas  H.  Cooper,  Agent  for  the  Choctaws  and  Cliicka- 
saws,  and  Matthew  Leeper,  Agent  for  the  Wichitas,  Coman- 
ches  and  other  lleserve  Indians, thus  virtually  assuming  the 


9 

responsibility  of  continuing  these  gentlemen  in  their  several 
offices ;  and  supposing  that  William  H.  Garrett,  Agent  for 
the  Creeks,  had  resigned,  and  that  William  Quesenbury, 
who  had  been  appointed  in  his  place,  had  qualified  and  was 
in  office,  I  requested  the  latter  to  act  as  Agent  for  that  Na- 
tion. It  was  subsequently  ascertained  that  Mr.  Garrett  had 
not  resigned,  and  he  consequently  remains  in  office,  Mr. 
Quesenbury  declining  to  interfere  with  him  by  accepting 
it. 

The  gentlemen  a,bove  named  were  all  well  known  to  me  as 
loyal  to  the  Confederate  States.  Mr.  Crawford  is  a  citizen 
of  Arkansas,  and  his  appointment  was  procured  by  Senator 
Johnson,  of  Arkansas,  for  that  reason.  Mr.  Garrett  is  a 
citizen  of  Alabama,  Col.  Cooper,  of  Mississippi  and  Messrs. 
Rutherford  and  Leeper  are  citizens  of  Arkansas. 

On  the  7th  of  October,  I  authorized  Andrew  J.  Dorn,  a 
citizen  of  Missouri,  and  Agent  for  the  Osages,  Quapaws,  &c, 
at  the  time  of  the  secession  of  the  Confederate  States,  to 
continue  to  act  as  such  Agent. 

All  these  gentlemen  consented  to  act,  and  have  been  en- 
gaged, since  their  appointments,  in  the  discharge  of  the 
duties  of  their  offices;  and  it  becomes  necessary  to 
provide  the  means  of  payment  for  their  services,  for 
which  they  have  as  yet  received  nothing  from  the  Confederate 
States. 

I  left  Fort  Smith  for  Tahlequah  in  the  Cherokee  nation, 
on  the  28th  of  May.  The  part}'  consisted  of  myself,  Mr. 
William  Quesenbury,  whom  I  had  employed  as  my  Secreta- 
ry, Mr.  William  H.  Faulkner,  a  young  gentleman  of  Little 
Rock,  and  my  son,  Walter  L.  Pike.  At  the  Creek  Agency 
I  was  also  joined  by  Capt.  Win.  Warren  Johnson,  now  my 
Aid-de-camp.  Three  servants  and  the  driver  I  afterwards  em- 
ployed, completed  the  party.  An  escort  of  a  company  of 
xVrkansas  mounted  State  troops,  commanded  by  Capt.  Thos. 
Lewis,  accompanied  me,  furnished  by  Brig.  Gen.  McCul- 
loch,  who  also  caused  me  to  be  furnished  with  partial  subsist 
tence  supplies  for  thirty  days. 

In  addition  to  the  labor  performed  by  my  secretary,  I 
found  it  necessary,  on  account  of  the  pressure  caused  by  the 
copying  of  treaties  and  the  multiplicity  of  accounts  and 
■acts,  to  avail  myself  of  the  very  valuable  and  constant 
services,  as  a  skilful  accountant  and  copyist,  of  Capt.  Johnson, 
and  of  those  of  Mr.  Walter  L.  Pike,  (for  whose  labor  I  have 
allowed  no  charge  to  be  made,)  as  a  copyist. 


10 

I  reached  Tahlequah  on  the  4th  of  June,  and  on  the  5th 
had  an  interview  with  the  Principal  Chief  of  the  Cherokee 
Nation,  the  Hon.  John  Ross.  He  had  already  publicly  de- 
clared it  to  he  his  determination  to  remain  neutral,  and  had 
recommended  that  policy  to  his  people,  the  majority  of  whom 
sustained  him  in  it;  and  in  the  interview  I  had  with  him,  he 
declared  that  he  adhered  to  that  policy,  and  that  he  would 
make  no  treaty  with  the  Confederate  States  ;  since  that  would 
be  in  violation  of  the  treaties  of  the  Cherokecs  with  the 
United  States  ;  and  he  protested  against  any  occupation  of 
the  Cherokee  country  by  our  troops,  while  declaring  that  he 
wras  in  sentiment  and  feeling  a  Southern  man,  born  in  the 
South,  and  the  owner  of  slaves  ;  for,  he  said,  the  Cherokee 
people  were  few  in  number,  and  if  they  took  up  arms,  their 
country  would  be  overrun,  and  the  Nation  ruined. 

Gen.  McCulloch,  who  had  gone  to  Tahlequah  from  Fort 
Smith  bv  a  different  route,  and  met  me  at  the  Chief's  resi- 
dence at  Park  Hill,  five  miles  distant,  was  present  at  this 
interview,  and  informed  the  Chief  that  he  would  respect  his 
neutrality,  but  that  if  any  Northern  troops  entered  the 
country,  or  if  the  Southern  party  in  the  Nation  were  op- 
pressed, he  should  himself  occupy  it  at  once. 

On  the  6th  of  June  I  sent  to  Mr.  Ross  the  letter,  of 
which  a  copy  is  submitted  with  this  report,  marked  A  ;  an 
answer  to  which,  enclosing  his  reply  to  a  letter  from  the 
Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  was  received  by  me  at  the 
Creek  Agency  some  weeks  afterwards,  repeating  his  deter- 
mination to  remain  neutral.  That  answer  I  transmitted  to 
the  Secretary  of  State.  I  shall  hereafter  speak  of  the  ob- 
stacles that  impeded  our  negotiations  among  all  the  princi- 
pal Indian  Nations,  of  the  inducements  that  tended  to  per- 
suade them  to  adhere  to  the  Northern  government,  and  of 
the  reasons  for  suspicion  on  their  part  in  respect  to  our- 
selves. 

There  were  other  difficulties  and  troubles,  in  addition, 
among- the  Cherokecs.  From  a  period  at  least  as  remote  as 
the  year  1835,  two  parties  had  existed  in  that  Nation — o::e 
headed  by  Mr.  Ross,  and  in  which  much  the  larger  portion 
of  the  full-bloods  was  included,  opposed  to  the  treaty  made 
in  that  year  ;  and  the  other,  composed  of  those  who  made 
that  treaty,  and  their  adherents,  including  most  of  the  half- 
bloods.  Many  acts  of  violence  had  been  committed,  and  the 
most   bitter  feelings  had    all  the   time  prevailed ;  but  Mr. 


11 

Koss  had  been  regularly  and  continuously  elected  Principal 
Chief,  up  to  the  time  when  our  troubles  commenced. 

The  party  opposed  to  Mr.  Ross  had  taken  open  ground 
in  favor  of  the  seceding  States  ;  and  it  was  alleged  that  on 
the  other  side  a  secret  society  existed,  of  which  nearly  all 
the  full-bloods  were  members,  founded  under  the  auspices 
of  certain  missionaries,  alleged  to  be  abolitionists,  held  to- 
gether by  stringent  oaths,  and  used  for  purposes  of  violence 
and  outrage  towards  the  half-breeds.  Attempts  to  raise 
secession  flags  had  been  prevented  by  the  interposition  of 
large  bodies  of  armed  men,  and  the  Southern  Rights  men  in 
the  Nation  were  greatly  apprehensive  of  danger  to  them- 
selves. 

Some  of  the  leaders  of  this  party  had  called  on  General 
McCulloch  and  myself  at  Fort  Smith  ;  and  before  leaving 
that  place  I  sent  a  messenger  to  six  of  the  most  influential 
men  of  the  party,  residing  in  different  parts  of  the  Nation, 
requesting  them  to  meet  me  at  the  Creek  Agency,  after  I 
should  have  seen  Mr.  Ross,  on  a  day  which  I  fixed  ;  my  in- 
tention being  to  enter,  upon  his  refusal  to  treat,  into  a  con- 
vention with  them,  guaranteeing  protection  to  themselves, 
and  its  rights  and  privileges  to  the  Nation.  The  fear  of 
consequences,  and  other  causes,  prevented  the  attendance  of 
any  of  them.  They  were  a  minority  of  the  Nation,  and 
could  not  venture  to  raise  companies  for  our  service,  though 
some  were  organized  for  self-defence ;  nor  did  General 
McCulloch  think  it  best  to  call  upon  them  at  that  time,  to 
raise  and  furnish  troops. 

On  the  6th  of  June  I  left  Tahlequah,  and  reached  the 
Creek  Agency  on  the  7th.  I  had  sent  an  invitation  to  the 
Creek  Chiefs,  who  were  personally  known  to  me,  to  meet  me 
at  North  Fork  Village  on  the  7th  ;  but  the  high  waters  had 
prevented  my  reaching  that  place  in  time.  The  Chiefs  now 
represented  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  call  a  General 
Council  of  the  Nation,  in  ord.r  that  whatever  was  done 
might  receive  the  sanction  of  the  whole  people.  Two  Dele- 
gates had  gone  to  Richmond,  and  to  give  time  for  their  re- 
turn, until  which  I  found  nothing  could  be  effected,  I  fixed 
the  25th  as  the  day  for  the  meeting  of  the  Council.  This 
was  agreed  to,  and  notice  sent  to  the  different  towns. 

I  remained  at  the  Agency  until  the  22d  of  June.  A  day 
or  two  previous,  I  sent  Captain  Lewis'  company  back  to 
Fort  Smith,  and  had  no  other  escort  afterwards  except  the 
Indian  company  hereafter  mentioned. 


12 

Soon  after  reaching  the  Agency,  I  received  the  letter 
from  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  which  is  marked  B, 
and  the  copy  of  his  instructions  from  the  Secretary  of  War, 
which  is  marked  C.  Some  two  weeks  afterwards  I  received 
the  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  marked  D,  dated  the 
25th  of  May,  with  a  copy  of  "An  Act  for  the  protection  of 
certain  Indian  Tribes,"  approved  the  21st  of  May,  1861. 

The  Act  of  Congress  in  question,  while  declaring  the  ex- 
tension of  jurisdiction  and  control  over  the  Indian  country, 
enacted  by  it,  to  be  subject  to  all  the  rights,  privileges,  im- 
munities, titles  and  guarantees,  with  each  of  the  Indian 
tribes,  under  treaties  and  statutes, had  proceeded  to  pro- 
vide that  nothing  therein  contained  should  be  construed  to 
commit  the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States  to  any 
obligation  to  pay  any  moneys  due  from  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  to  the  said  Indian  tribes,  or  to  discharge 
any  obligations  contracted  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  to  the  said  Indian  tribes,  which  would  involve  an  ex- 
penditure of  money  by  the  Government  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

This  act,  the  Secretary  of  Sta,te  advised  me  by  his  letter, 
would  be  my  guide  in  any  undertaking  with  the  Indians. 
"  This  being  the  law,"  he  said,  "  it  is  not  in  the  power  of 
the  President  to  vary  it.  Congress  did  n.t  know  the  extent 
of  the  obligations,  and  would  not  adopt  them  blind." 

The  Secretary  at  War  wished  the  Indians  to  be  informed 
of  the  earnest  desire  of  the  Confederate  States  to  protect 
them  against  the  rapacity  of  the  Northern  States,  and  that 
those  States  would  undoubtedly  free  their  slaves  and  seize 
their  lands.  He  desired  them  to  call  out  their  warriors  and 
take  the  field  in  the  service  of  our  Government,  by  Which 
they  should  be  armed  and  paid.  He  said,  "  In  addition  to 
those  things,  regarded  of  primary  importance,  you  will, 
without  committing  the  Government  to  any  especial  conduct,  ex- 
press our  serious  anxiety  to  establish  and  enforce  the  debt 
and  annuities  due  to  them  from  the  Government  at  Wash- 
ington, which  otherwise  they  will  never  obtain  ; "  and  he 
directed  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  to  communicate 
to  the  Indians  "  the  abiding  solicitude  of  the  Confederate 
States  to  advance  their  condition  in  the  direction  of  a  proud 
political  society,  with  a  distinctive  civilization,  and  holdiag 
lands  in  severalty,  under  well  defined  laws,  by  forming  them  into 
a  Territorial  Government"  but  that  he  should  give  them  no  as- 
surance  of  State   organization   and  independence,  as  they 


13 

still   required  the  strong   arm  of  protecting  power,  "and 
might  probably  always  need  our  fostering  care." 

If  the  Secretary  at  War  had  desired  to  take  the  most  cer- 
tain means  of  making  it  impossible  to  effect  a  treaty  with 
the  Cherokees,  Creeks,  Seminoles,  Choctaws  and  Chicka- 
saws,  he  could  have  found  none  so  perfect  and  complete  as 
to  have  communicated  to  them  these  instructions.  Of  two 
things,  above  all  others,  these  tribes,  and  all  their  people  to 
a  man,  are  afraid  :  One,  that  their  lands  will  be  parcelled 
out  in  severalty  without  their  consent ;  another,  that  they 
will  be  compelled  to  receive  a  Territorial  organization.  By 
promising  these  two  things,  and  cutting  off  all  hope  that 
they  could  ever  become  a  State,  he  would  with  the  greatest 
ease  have  rendered  all  attempts  to  treat  with  them  nugatory, 
and  driven  every  one  of  them  to  take  up  arms  against  us. 
Fortunately,  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  did  not 
enter  the  Indian  country,  and  these  instructions  remained 
unknown.  When  some  of  the  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw 
Delegates  desired  to  transfer  the  negotiations  to  Richmond, 
a  perusal  of  them  ended  that  notion  at  once. 

Before  I  had  received  the  copy  of  the  act  of  Congress  and 
the  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  I  replied  to  the  letter 
of  the  Commissioner.  A  copy  of  my  reply  Avas  forwarded 
by  me  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  no  copy  was  retained 
by  me. 

I  had  been  informed  by  Capt.  Johnson,  that  the  Secretary 
of  State  had,  in  his  presence,  informed  the  Hon.  Robert  W. 
Johnson,  of  Arkansas,  whom  I  had  desired  to  ascertain 
what  my  powers  were,  that  I  had  all  the  powers  cf  a  Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary,  with  military  powers  superadded.  I 
had  not  received, and  never  have  received  any  official  definition 
of  my  powers,  nor  any  other  instructions  than  those  already 
quoted.  Supposing  myself  to  be  acting  by  authority  from 
the  Department  of  State,  I  therefore  informed  the  Commis- 
sioner, that  if  I  considered  myself  bound  by  the  instructions 
of  the  Secretary  at  War,  I  should  at  once  resign  and  return 
home  ;  and  that  I  should  give  the  Indians  guarantees  directly 
contrary  to  those  instructions.  If  I  had  then  received  the 
letter  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  copy  of  the  act  of 
Congress,  I  think  I  should  have  resigned.  Whether  it  was 
fortunate  or  unfortunate  that  I  did  not,  will  depend  on  the 
Government's  approval  or  disapproval  of  my  acts. 

I  also  endeavored  to  show  why  I  could  not  accept  and  act 
upon  the  instructions  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  in  regard  to 


14 

the  debts  and  annuities  due  the  Indians.  The  reasons  which 
I  thus  gave  seemed  sufficient  to  myself,  as  was  natural,  since 
I  had  formally  proposed  to  the  Chief  of  the  Cherokees  to  do 
that  which  the  Secretary  at  War  directed  should  not  be 
done. 

But  when,  afterwards,  I  received  the  copy  of  the  act  of 
Congress,  and  the  consequent  directions  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  I  found  myself  placed  in  a  position  of  great  difficulty. 
That  letter  virtually  directed  me  not  to  assume  the  pay- 
ment, on  the  part  of  the  Confederate  States,  of  any  annui- 
ties or  other  moneys  due  any  of  the  Indians.  The  instruc- 
tions of  the  Secretary  at  War  to  the  Commissioner  of  Indian 
Affairs  were  directly  to  the  same  effect.  On  the  other  hand, 
without  assuming  these  debts,  no  treaty  was  possible  with 
any  of  the  tribes,  and  the  gravest  consequences  would  result ; 
and,  in  the  meantime,  it  was  necessary  to  act  at  once. 

It  was  useless  to  tell  these  Indians  that  they  had  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  love  of  land  of  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States,  but  that  the  States  of  the  North  would  inevitably  rob 
them  of  these  lands.  The  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs 
was  desired  by  the  Seceetary  at  War  to  impress  this  on  the 
Indians,  and  the  Commissioner  particularly  urged  me  to  do 
so.  He  did  it  himself,  in  his  letter  to  John  Ross,  the  able 
and  astute  Chief  of  the  Cherokees,  who  quietly  replied  that  he 
believed  no  foot-tracks  of  the  Red  men  were  now  to  be  seen 
on  the  Tennessee  any  more  than  on  the  Ohio.  The  com- 
pleteness of  the  response  leaves  little  to  be  added  to  it.  All 
these  Indian  tribes  originally  lived  within  the  limits  of  what 
are  now  the  Confederate  States — the  Cherokees  in  North 
Carolina,  Georgia  and  Tennessee;  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles 
in  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Florida ;  the  Choctaws  and  Chick- 
asaws  in  Alabama  and  Mississippi  ;  and  all  their  lauds  had 
been  yielded  up  on  the  demand  of  these  States.  Most  of 
them  had  been  removed  west  of  the  Mississippi  under  cir- 
cumstances of  peculiar  hardship,  so  much  so  that  in  conse- 
quence of  the  removal,  more  than  a  fourth  of  their  number 
perished.  Their  just  claims  for  damages  caused  by  gross, 
repeated  and  inexcusable  violations  of  treaties  had  been  dis- 
regarded, in  some  cases  for  more  than  a  third  of  a  century, 
and  inadequate  compensation  finally  made  for  part,  in  some 
cases,  on  condition  that  they  would  release  the  rest ;  and  the 
reluctance  of  many  Southern  Senators  to  do  them  justice, 
their   open   opposition,  indeed,  in  some  cases,    had  forced 


15 

them  too  often  to  appeal  to  others,  to  whom  they  ought  never 
to  have  been  led  to  look  for  justice  long  denied. 

Some  of  the  most  influential  Creeks  had  been  taken  west 
in  irons ;  and  among  the  Seminoles  were  many  who  were  in 
arms  against  us  only  a  few  years  ago. 

There  being  no  taxation  known  in  any  of  these  Nations, 
nor  any  other  mode  of  raising  revenue,  they  were  wholly  de- 
pendent on  their  annuities  and  annual  payments  for  means 
to  support  their  Government,  educate  their  children  and  pay 
the  mechanics  employed  in  the  public  service ;  and  as  among 
some  of  them,  annuities  were  distributed  per  capita,  all  the 
people  looked  to  these  as  the  chief  means  by  which  they 
could  procure  such  articles  as  they  needed  from  the  stores. 

The  Federal  Government  had  withheld  these  annuities 
from  them  for  the  year  1801,  in  order  by  means  of  the  hold 
so  gained  upon  them,  to  keep  them  loyal.  To  some,  arrear- 
ages still  further  back  were  due.  Of  half  a  million  of  dollars 
appropriated  for  the  Choctaws,  only  a  small  part  was  paid, 
and  of  the  check  on  a  bank  in  New  York,  given  for  another 
portion,  payment  was  stopped,  that  the  fear  of  loss  might 
prevent  an  alliance  on  their  part  with  the  South. 

Among  the  five  principal  tribes  there  is  no  lack  of  shrewd, 
capable  and  well  informed  men.  These  not  only  knew  that 
treaties  made  within  six  years  had  been  grossly  violated, 
almost  as  soon  as  the  ink  was  dry  upon  them,  but  they  also 
knew  that  the  Northern  States  greatly  outnumbered  us  in 
population,  had  a  far  greater  command  of  means,  and  held 
by  far  the  largest  share  of  the  property  of  the  Union.  To 
them  the  contest  seemed,  at  the  best,  a  very  doubtful  one,  to 
engage  in  which  on  their  part  was  most  dangerous. 

The  Cherokee  county  extends  to  within  a  short  distance  of 
the  Kansas  line,  and  between  it  and  them  were  the  Osages, 
long  their  enemies,  and  who  own  no  slaves,  and  would  pro- 
bably side  with  the  North.  Missouri,  Maryland  and  Ken- 
tucky, the  principal  men  knew,  had  refused  to  side  with  the 
Confederate  States ;  and  among  the  Indians  themselves,  not 
one  in  fifty  owns  a  slave. 

We  wished  these  people  to  separate  from  the  Northern 
States  and  unite  themselves  with  us.  We  proposed  to  ask 
them  to  throw  away  all  chance  of  ever  receiving  a  dollar  of 
the  moneys  due  them  from  the  North,  while  we  should  de- 
cline to  assume  those  debts  ourselves.  We  proposed  to  ask 
them  to  put  their  lands,  their  slaves,  their  very  national  ex- 
istence on  the  hazard  of  the  die,  and  take  up  arms  for  us, 


16 

while  we  should  decline  to  assume  to  pay  them  what  we  and 
the  North  together  justly  owe  them. 

Their  treaties,  I  was  urging  on  these  Indians,  were  made 
with  us,  as  well  as  with  the  North,  and  therefore  they  would 
not  violate  those  treaties,  made  with  the  United  States,  by 
entering  into  an  alliance  with  us.  Surely  it  followed,  if  we 
were  the  party  of  the  first  part  to  those  treaties  for  that  pur- 
pose, we  were  so  for  all  purposes  ;  that  if  they  were  to  be 
asked  to  abide  by  their  treaties  in  our  favor,  we  could  not 
refuse  to  do  so  in  their  favor. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  it  needed  no  new  agreement  on  our 
part  to  charge  ourselves  with  all  the  debts  due  them  by  the 
United  States.  The  new  Government,  claiming  their  alle- 
giance or  adhesion,  succeeding  to  the  rights  of  the  old  Gov- 
ernment, succeeded  also  to  its  liabilities  ;  and  on  no  other 
ground  than  that  of  succession  is  it  possible  to  maintain  the 
validity  or  propriety  of  the  act  of  Congress  extending  our 
jurisdiction  over  the  Indian  country.  We  take  the  place 
of  the  United  States  ;  and  wTe  cannot  take  it  for  one  purpose 
and  not  for  all. 

I  hope  the  President  will  not  consider  this  argument  as 
out  of  place.  Upon  its  validity  depends  the  propriety  of  my 
action,  and  perhaps  the  fate  of  the  treaties  themselves,  the 
peace  of  the  Indian  country,  and  its  gain  or  loss  to  us. 

It  wras  forced  upon  me  to  decide  at  once  what  I  would  do. 
It  was  very  clear  that  if  the  Indian  tribes  were  not  concilia- 
ted and  treaties  made,  they  would  be  confederated  against  us 
in  ninety  days.  A  Council  of  Creeks,  Seminoles,  Shawnccs, 
Cherokees,  Delawares  and  the  Indians  of  the  prairie,  was 
then  being  held,  high  up  on  the  North  Fork  of  the  Canadian, 
to  form  a  confederation  for  the  purpose,  in  pretence,  of  main- 
taining neutrality,  but  in  reality  for  that  of  siding  with  the 
North.  An  agreement  to  that  effect  was  in  fact  made  there. 
Vague  ideas  of  independence,  of  a  union  of  all  the  tribes, 
and  of  thus  gaining  great  privileges,  by  seizing  the  advan- 
tages offered  by  the  troubled  state  of  our  affairs,  were  afloat 
all  through  the  Indian  country.  An  emissary  from  Kansas 
was  among  the  Creeks.  The  Shawnecs,  Delawares  and 
Kickapoos,  residing  there,  were  disaffected;  not  a  few  men, 
whites  and  Indians,  were  mischievously  disposed  ;  and  Mr. 
Ross  was  counselling  the  influential  Creeks  to  adhere  to  his 
policy  of  neutrality.  Ben  Marshall,  a  Lower  Creek,  owning 
a  hundred  negroes,  was  opposed  to  making  a  treaty ;  and  so 
was  Hopoi-ilth-thli-Yahola,  an  Upper  Creek,  formerly  Na- 


17 

tional  Speaker,  end  brought  out  of  Alabamain  1S36  in  chains; 
one  of  the  men  who  killed  Gen.  William  Mcintosh,  Principal 
Chief  of  the  Creeks,  for  making  the  treaty  of  1827. 

There  was  no  time  to  wait  to  receive  further  instructions 
from  the  Government,  If  I  returned  home,  seventy-five 
hundred  fighting  men,  who  could  be  made  our  allies,  might 
become  our  enemies,  and  part  of  them  certainly  would. 

In  that  event,  the  whole  force  of  Gen.  McCulloch  would 
be  required  in  the  Indian  country,  millions  of  money  be  ex- 
pended in  subduing  the  Indians,  aided  as  they  would  he  by 
Northern  troops,  and  the  whole  Western  frontier  of  Arkan- 
sas would  be  ruined,  if  we  did  not  ultimately  lose  that  very 
finest  portion  of  the  southern  country,  a  loss  equivalent  to 
that  of  at  least  any  one  of  our  States. 

Still,  even  these  considerations  would  not  have  induced 
me  to  act  in  direct  contravention  of  a  prohibition  contained 
in  an  act  of  Congress.  Perhaps  that  would  not  be  justified 
in  any  case.  But  I  could  not  see  that  the  act  in  question 
did  more  than  declare  that  the  Congress  declined  to  assume, 
by  any  exercise  of  the  Legislative  power,  the  annuities  and 
debts  due  the  Indians.  It  was,  to  my  mind,  simply  the  ex- 
elusion  of  a  conclusion.  It  did  not  assume  to  prohibit  the 
assumption  of  part  or  the  whole  of  those  debts  and  annui- 
ties by  the  legitimate  exercise  of  the  Treaty-making  power  : 
and  certainly  no  such  intention  to  prohibit  that  assumption 
in  the  proper  mode,  could  be  implied,  or  be  attributed  to 
the  Legislature,  unless  the  language  admitted  of  no  other 
construction. 

Finding  in  the  act  no  limitation  of  my  powers,  and  in  my 
instructions  nothing  beyond  a  reference  to  that  act  and  its 
supposed  meaning,  and  knowing  that  it  would  be  a  great  wrong 
and  a  great  mistake  to  refuse  to  assume  those  debts,  and 
that  without  such  assumption  no  treaty  could  be  made,  I 
determined  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  doing  so,  and  if 
it  proved  to  be  an  error,  to  abide  the  consequent  censure  of 
my  Government. 

There  was  still  another  reason.  The  moneys  due  the 
Cherokees,  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws,  with  part  of  those 
due  the  Creeks,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  quite  a  large 
sum,  were  invested  in  stocks,  chiefly  of  individual  States  of 
the  Confederacy.  The  interest  on  these  moneys,  by  the  act 
of  Congress,  the  Confederate  States  proposed  only  to  en- 
deavor to  collect ;  and  it  was,  therefore,  more  imperative  that 
they  should  agree  to  pay  oth?r  moneys,  due  by  the  United 
9 


18 

States,  including  the  Confederate  States,  and  by  individual 
Northern  States,  to  agree  to  endeavor  to  enforce  payment 
whereof  would  he  a  mockery. 

If  I  should  fail  to  convince  the  President  and  Congress 
of  the  propriety  of  the  conclusion  to  which  I  came,  1  can 
only  plead  in  excuse  the  exigencies  of  the  occasion,  the 
grave  interests  at  stake,  and  the  sincerity  of  my  convic- 
tions. 

On  the  25th  of  June  I  reached  the  North  Fork  village, 
on  the  North  Fork  of  the  Canadian  River,  and  found  the 
Creek  Council  not  yet  assembled.  The  Delegates  of  the 
Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  Nations,  thirty-one  in  number,  had 
also  repaired  to  the  Ncrth  Fork,  and  desired  there  to  nego- 
tiate a  treaty.  The  Principal  Chief  and  some  of  the  lead- 
ing men  of  the  Seminoles  were  also  present,  by  my  invita- 
tion ;   and  all  met  me  in  the  most  friendly  spirit. 

On  the  27th  of  June  I  atttended  the  Council  of  the 
Creeks,  and  made  them  the  talk  which  is  herewith  submit- 
ted, marked  E.  This  was  carefully  interpreted,  and  the 
next  day  I  presented  them  with  the  draft  of  a  treaty,  and 
also  about  the  same  time  submitted  the  draft  of  the  Choctaw 
and  Chickasaw  Treaty  to  the  Delegates  from  those  Nations. 
Hopoi-ilth-thli  Yahola  opposed  making  a  treaty,  and 
though  he  had  a  long  and  friendly  conference  with  me, 
finally  retired  with  his  young  men  from  the  Council  of  the 
Creeks,  which  then  determined  by  unanimous  vote  to  join 
the  Confederate  States,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  ex- 
amine into  the  proposed  treaty,  and  definitely  settle  its  pro- 
visions. 

Some  delay  intervened  in  consequence  of  the  settlement, 
as  a  preliminary  measure,  of  a  convention  of  amity  between 
the  Creeks,  and  the  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws  ;  and,  in 
addition  to  the  efforts  of  mischievous  persons,  not  members 
of  either  nation,  to  defeat  the  negotiations,  some  of  the 
delegates  themselves  labored  to  the  same  end,  urged  by 
private  motives.  Some  desired  to  go  to  Richmond,  and 
make  a  treaty  there ;  and  there  were  other  motives  on  the 
part  of  some,  not  necessary  to  be  any  longer  remembered. 
It  may  be  added,  also,  that  an  Indian  has  no  idea  that  time 
is  of  any  value;  and,  therefore,  patience  is  a  peculiarly 
necessary  virtue  in  dealing  with  them. 

On  two  points  only,  I  encountered  serious  difficulty.  All  the 
three  nations  were  desirous  to  treat  as  independent  nations, 
and  to  conclude   a    treaty   of  alliance    and  friendship,  only. 


19 

They  were  opposed  to  assuming  the  state  of  Wards,  and  to 
accepting  the  Protectorate  of  the  Confederate  States.  I 
found  the  same  objection  among  the  Cherokees,  who  re- 
garded those  terms  as  recognizing  the  correctness  of  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the 
Cherokee  case,  so  defining  the  relation  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Indian  tribes.  That  point  I  could  not  yield; 
and  it  was  finally  conceded  by  the  Indians,  upon  my  expla- 
nation of  the  meaning  of  the  terms,  and  that  their  meaning 
va3  limited  by  the  provisions  of  the  treaties,  y>hile  the 
terms  themselves  were  indispensable. 

The  leading  half-breeds  among  the  Creeks  had  also  made 
up  their  minds  to  have  no  Agent  of  the  Confederate  States 
among  them,  and  desired  to  argue  the  point;  but  that  I 
declined  and  they  yielded. 

In  other  matters  the  Choctaws,  Chiekasaws  and  Creeks 
asked  only  such  additions  and  change-  as  were  right  and 
fair,  and  these  I  readily  conceded.  So  that  at  length  the  provi- 
sions of  both  treaties  were  settled  to  the  entire  satisfaction 
of  all. 

The  treaty  with  the  Creeks  was  signed  on  the  tenth  day 
of  July,  and  ratified  in  General  Council,  on  the  2i)th  of 
July,  the  Chiefs  of  every  town  in  the  nation  signing  the  act 
of  ratification. 

The  treaty  with  the  Choctaws  and  Chiekasaws  was  signed 
on  the  12th  of  July,  and  has  since  been  ratified  by  the 
Chickasaw  Legislature.  I  have  not  yet  heard  of  the  action 
of  the  Choctaw  General  Council,  whose  session  commenced 
on  the  first  Monday  of  October. 

On  the  14th  of  July,  I  left  the  North  Fork  and  reached 
the  Seminole  Agency  on  the  21st.  I  had  sent  a  request  to 
the  Indians  living  on  the  reserves  in  the  country  leased 
from  the  Choctaws  and  Chiekasaws,  to  meet  me  there,  and 
found  them  in  attendance  when  I  arrived.  It  was  not,  at 
that  time,  my  intention  to  go  to  the  leased  country  ;  and  as 
many  of  these  Indians  had  left  their  reserves  when  the 
troops  of  the  United  States  abandoned  that  country  and 
were  succeeded  by  volunteers  from  Tex  s,  I  wished  to  add 
to  my  own  assurances  of  our  power  and  disposition  to  pro- 
tect them,  those  of  the  authorities  of  the  Creek  Nation,  for 
whom  the  more  western  tribes  entertain  a  great  respect ;  and 
I,  therefore,  induced  the  principal  Chief  Moti  Kinnaird  or 
A-wa-li-co  Chapco,  and  other  influential  men  of  the  Creeks  to 
accompany  me.     John  Jumper,  or  Iliniha  Micco,  the  prin- 


20 

cipal  Chief  of  the  Seminole*,  had  hoard  the  draft  of  the 
Creek  treat}-  interpreted  at  the  Creek  Council,  and  had  re- 
turned home  satisfied  with  its  provisions  and  determined  to 
advise  his  people  to  make  a  similar  treaty.  Accordingly,  I 
met  with  no  difficulty  with  the  Seminoles.  I  made  them  the 
t ilk  which  is  herewith  submitted,  marked  F,  and  they 
promptly  decided  to  join  us.  I  concluded  the  treaty  with 
them  on  the  first  day  of  August,  which,  being  made  by  the 
General  Council,  needed  no  ratification.  The  payment  of 
one  just  claim  is  provided  for,  and  an  investigation  of  an- 
other; and  I  found  it  advisable,  in  order  to  satisfy  this  people 
of  our  justice  and  liberality,  to  provide  an  additional  com- 
pensation for  the   delegates,  who,  in  1857,  went  to   Florida 


to  induce  the  Seminoles  in  that  State  to  remove  to  the  West. 
The  compensation  allowed  them  was  grossly  inadequate,  and 
in  that  or  some  other  form  it  was  necessary  to  establish  our 
influence  on  a  firm  basis,  by  enlisting  the  influential  men  on 
our  side;  and  I  wished  to  give  no  gratuities. 

At  the  Seminole  Agency,  on  my  arrival,  I  found  the 
Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  Major  Elias  Rector, 
whom  I  had  directed  to  meet  me  there,  on  account  of  his 
being  known  to  the  Reserve  Indians,  whom  I  expected  to 
meet,  and  for  whom  he  had  selected  the  country  which  they 
were  now  occupying.  The  delegates  of  these  Bands,  on 
receiving  my  talk,  readily  agreed  to  accept  the  protection  of 
the  Confederate  States  ;  and,  being  informed  by  letter  from 
Mr.  Vore,  an  agent  whom  I  had  sent  to  the  Wichita 
Agency,  and  from  other  sources  of  information,  that  the 
Chiefs  of  some  of  the  Bands  of  the  Comanchcs  would  meet 
me  at  that  Agency,  I  determined  to  go  there,  in  the  hope 
of  inducing  those  Bands  to  abandon  their  wandering  life, 
and  settle  on  Reserves. 

On  the  3d  of  August  I  left  the  Wichita,  Agency,  accom- 
panied by  Superintendent  Rector  and  Mr.  Leepcr,  the  Agent 
for  the  Reserve  Indians,  who  had  come  with  Major  Rector  to 
the  Seminole  Agency;  by  a,  delegation  of  Creeks  and  Semi- 
noles, headed  by  the  principal  Chief  of  each  Nation,  and 
by  an  escort  of  36  Creeks  and  28  Seminoles,  whom  I  had  re- 
ceived into  the  service  as  a  special  company  for  that  purpose. 

On  the  Gth  of  August  I  reached  the  Wichita  Agency.  It 
is  situated  on  a  small  brook,  an  affluent  of  the  False  Washita 
river,  about  five  miles  eastward  from  Fort  Cobb,  and  a  mile 
or  more  from  the  river. 

That  portion    of  the    Choctaw    and    Chickasaw  country 


21 

which  lies  west  of  the  98th  parallel  of  longitude,  was  leased 
by  the  United  States  from  the  Choctaws  and  Chicjtasaws,  by 
the  treaty  of  1855  ;  and  in  the  treaty  I  had  negotiated  with 
those  Nations,  the  lease  is  continued  for  the  term  of  ninety- 
nine  years.  It  was  originally  procured  from  them,  in  order 
to  place  upon  it,  on  Reserves  with  definite  limits,  the  small 
bands  of  Comanches  and  other  Indians  settled  prior  and  up 
to  the  year  1859  on  Reserves  in  Texas.  These  bands  were, 
the  Pencteghca  Band  of  llic  Neum  or  Comanches,  number- 
ing about  320  persons,  the  Wichitas,  or  Ta-wai-hash,  the 
Huecos,  the  Tahuacaros,  the  Cadohadaehos,  Sudi  or  Nas- 
sowit,  commonly  called  the  Caldos,  the  Anadaghcos,  the 
Toncawes,  the  Aionais,  the  Kichais,  and  a  few  Shawnees 
and  Dclawares;  altogether  being  about  2,500  persons. 

The  United  States  had  agreed  to  build  them  houses,  to  aid 
in  opening  ground  for  them  to  cultivate,  to  feed  them  until 
they  could  support  themselves,  and  to  supply  them  with 
clothing,  cattle  and  implements  of  husbandry.  When  the 
United  States  troops  withdrew  from  the  country,  in  April  of 
the  present  year,  the  Agent  also  left  the  country,  and  about 
half  of  the  Indians,  alarmed  at  this  and  at  the  stationing  of 
Texan  troops  there,  at  Fort  Cobb  and  Arbuckle,  fled  into  the 
Seminole  and  Chickasaw  country,  and  had  not  returned. 
Those  who  remained  continued  to  be  fed  by  the  contractor, 
and  as  he  had  been  paid  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  up  to  the  30th  of  June  only,  and  was  about  to  abandon 
his  contract,  I  had  directed  him  to  continue  issuing  rations 
under  it,  on  account  of  the  Confederate  States,  until  a  new 
contract  should  be  made.  This  he  was  doing  when  I  arrived 
there. 

I  found  the  Chiefs  and  head  men  of  four  Bands  of  the 
Comanches  of  the  prairies  waiting  for  me.  They  had  come  in, 
leaving  their  families  near  the  Antelope  Hills,  and  had  with 
them  only  a  few  of  their  people,  one  hundred  and  forty 
being  the  whole  number  present. 

On  the  1 2th  of  August  I  concluded  a  convention  with  the 
Chiefs  and  head  men  of  these  four  bands,  the  Noconis, 
Taneiwes,  Yaparihcas,  and  Cochotihcas,  by  which  they  agreed 
to  come  in  and  settle  on  Reserves  in  the  Leased  District,  and 
I  agreed  that  they  should  be  fed  and  assisted  like  the  Re- 
serve Indians.  On  the  same  day  I  also  concluded  a  con- 
vention with  the  Reserve  Indians  themselves. 

The  Comanche  Chiefs  also  agreed  to  visit  the  other  bands 
of  the  Neum,  and  induce  them,  if  possible,  to  follow  their 


o<> 


example,  in  which  they  believed  they  should  succeed.  These 
other  bands,  so  far  as  I  could  learn  their  names,  are  the 
Mo-eha,  the  Ke-wih-che-mah,  the  Tich-aih-ken-c  and  the 
Pa-a-bo,  and  all  have  the  generic  name   of  Ncum,  the  word 

Comanche,  not  being  used  by  themselves. 

I  was  greatly  assisted  in  this  negotiation,  by  the  Creek 
and  Seminole  delegates,  and  by  the  presence  of  an  armed 
escort  of  those  Indians,  serving  as  soldiers  under  the  Con- 
federate flag.  Their  presence  gave  great  confidence  to  the 
Comanches,  and  persuaded  them  to  rely  on  my  promises 
and  good  faith;  and  the  Creek  and  Seminole  Chiefs  did 
every  thing  in  their  power  to  gain  their  confidence,  by  as- 
suring them  that  all  the  promises  I  made  them  would  he 
fulfilled,  and  hy  pointing  to  the  condition  of  themselves  and 
their  own  people,  as  evidence  of  the  good  results  to  be  expected 
fram  their  adoption  of  a  settled  life  and  the  abandonment  of 
their  nomadic  habits.  To  their  exertions  my  success  is  in  a 
gre  it  measure  to  be  attributed. 

It  is  especially  expressed  in  the  Comanche  treaty,  that 
Texas  is  one  of  the  Confederate  States,  a  party  to  the  treaty, 
and  bound  by  all  its  provisions,  and  that  always  hereafter 
peace  is  to  prevail  between  it  and  the  Comanches.  This 
was  necessary,  because  war  had  long  existed  between  them, 
and  it  had  seemed  impossible  to  make  the  Comanches  un- 
derstand that  Texas  was  a  part  of  the  United  States. 

I  am  satisfied  that  these  Indians  acted  sincerely  and  in 
good  faith.  They  seemed  very  anxious  to  be  allowed  to 
settle  on  land  of  their  own,  and  to  live  in  peace.  I  feel 
certain  that  they  will  do  so  if  no  unfortunate  collision  oc- 
curs to  shake  their  confidence,  and  if  the  Government  com- 
plies promptly  and  fully  with  my  promises.  So  far  as  they 
are  concerned,  I  am  sure  that  there  will  be  no  longer  a 
border  war  in  Texas,  annually  costing  many  valuable  lives 
and  entailing  an  immense  expense  upon  the  State  and 
Confederate  Treasuries. 

In  the  hope  of  preventing  any  attack  upon  the  bands 
which  had  treated  with  me,  I  gave  each  of  the  Chiefs  a  white 
flag  and  letters  of  safeguard.  On  their  way  back  they  met 
a  detachment  of  Major  Burleson's  command  of  Texan 
troops,  who  respected  the  flag  and  letters.,  and  thus  gave  the 
Comanches  assurance  that  Texas  really  is  a  party  to  the 
treaty. 

The  Cai-a-wras,  a  wandering  prairie  tribe,  who  have  con- 
tinually associated   with    the   Comanches,  and  speak  their 


23 

language  as  well  as  their  own,  refused  to  come  in  and  make 
a  treaty,  quarreled  with  the  Comanches  for  agreeing  to  do 
so,  and  after  murdering  a  boy,  near  Fort  Cobb,  and  two  or 
three  men  of  a  company  of  Texan  troops,  fled  with  a  plain 
trail  direct  to  the  Comanche  camp,  near  the  Antelope  Hills, 
in  the  hope,  no  doubt,  of  inducing  the  belief  that  the  Coman- 
ches were  the  murderers,  and,  by  thus  causing  an  attack  to 
be  made  on  them,  of  breaking  off  the  treaty.  Fortunately, 
Major  Burleson,  who  followed  the  trail,  did  not  overtake  the 
Comanches,  and  no  collision  occurred. 

Soon  after  the  treaty  was  made,  these  Cai-a-was  declared 
that  as  soon  as  their  young  men  returned  from  Mexico, 
where  they  then  were  on  a  marauding  expedition,  they 
would  come  down  and  attack  the  Indians  on  the  Reserves, 
and  kill  and  plunder  on  the  Texan  frontier.  They  drove 
away  from  among  them  the  celebrated  Comanche  Chief, 
Buffalo  Hump,  for  twenty-five  years  the  active  enemy  of 
Texas,  telling  him  to  return  to  his  people,  the  Peneteghcas, 
who  were  friends  of  the  whites,  and  prepare  for  war,  since 
there  was  no  longer  any  friendship  between  the  Comanches 
and  themselves.  That  Chief  accordingly  left  them,  and 
came  to  the  Wichita  agency,  desiring  to  have  a  house  built 
for  him  that  he  might  settle  with  his  people. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  the  acts  of  hostility  lately  complained 
of  in  Texas,  have  been  committed  by  the  Cai-a-was,  and  they 
arc,  of  course,  charged  to  the  account  of  the  Comanches, 
none  of  whom  are  now  hostile.  I  have  just  learned,  by 
letter  from  Fort  Smith,  that  seven  thousand  Comanches  were 
encamped  a  short  distance  from  Fort  Cobb,  waiting  for  the 
leaves  to  fall  that  they  might  come  in  and  meet  me  and 
settle  ;  that  all  the  Comanches  had  determined  to  do  so,  and 
that  the  Cai-a-was  had,  with  the  exception  of  about  twenty, 
received  the  wampum  I  sent  them,  and  likewise  agreed 
to  come  in  and  make  a  treaty. 

I  had  promised  the  Comanches  to  meet  them  at  the  Agency 
at  the  falling  of  the  leaves,  and  to  bring  with  me  the  goods 
promised  as  presents  ;  and  I  had  sent  by  them  to  the  Cai-a- 
was  the  wampum  of  peace  and  a  bullet,  with  a  message  tell- 
ing them  to  take  their  choice,  and  that  if  they  should  choose 
war,  I  would  send  a  thousand  Creeks  and  Seminoles  after 
them,  and  wipe  them  out.  The  Comanche  Chiefs  thought 
that  this  would  induce  them  to  treat;  and  their  judgment 
seems  likely  to  be  confirmed. 

The  person  with  whom  I  effected  a  contract  to  continue  to 


24 

feed  the  Reserve  Indians  for  a  year.  has  made  ample  ar- 
rangements to  supp'y  all  the  wild  Indians  who  come  in  and 
settle;  and  I  have  sent  a  message  to  them  that  I  have  been 
unexpectedly  delayed,  but  will  soon  come  or  Bend  the  Super- 
intendent to  assign  them  lands  and  deliver  their  presents. 

If  these  Indians  should  abandon  their  nomadic  life,  and 
settle  on  Reserves,  it  will  be  found  much  cheaper  to  feed 
them  for  a  time,  supply  them  with  animals  forjwork, build  them 
huts,  and  help  them  to  open  and  cultivate  farms,  than  to 
maintain  two  or  three  regiments  in  order  to  kill  them;  since 
the  cost  of  that  has  certainly  not  been  less  than  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  a  head,  for  men^women  and  children;  and  since 
so  few  have  been  killed  in  twenty  years,  as  in  no  wise  to  have 
diminished  their  capacity  to  do  injury. 

The  Comanches  arc  a  brave,  frank,  and  intelligent  people, 
far  superior  to  most  of  the  other  tribes.  Their  language  is 
a  fine  and  sonorous  one,  resembling  in  its  terminations  that 
of  the  Nachis  or  Natchez.  I  was  favorably  impressed  by 
them,  and  am  satisfied  that  they  will  easily  become  reconciled 
to  a  settled  life  and  the  cultivation  of  the  soil.  Those  of  the 
Peneteghca  band,  who  have  been  several  years  on  Reserves, 
are  entirely  peaceful  and  quiet  and  have  shown  a  commend- 
able industry.  They  need  more  houses  ;  and  those  that  have 
been  built  for  them  are  very  miserable  huts,  while  their 
tents  are  worn  too  thin  to  protect  them  against  the  cold. 
They  have  this  year  cultivated  a  considerable  field  of  corn, 
and  if  they  had  had  the  assistance  promised  them  and  pro- 
vided for  them,  would  now  be  in  a  very  comfortable  condi- 
tion. When  they  were  driven  from  Texas,  they  left  behind 
them  good  houses  and  large  numbers  of  cattle,  for  which 
they  ought  to  be  remunerated;  and  far  better  care  ought  to 
be  taken  of  them  and  the  Reserve  Indians  than  has  been 
hitherto,  f  only  for  the  sake  of  common  humanity  and 
decency. 

The  Reserve  Indians  are  all  returning  to  the  Reserves, 
■where,  if  they  had  remained,  they  would  this  year  have  made 
good  crops  of  corn.  Their  alarm  and  consequent  removal 
was  natural  enough,  when  they  saw  the  troops  and  Agent 
leaving,  and  Texan  troops  entering  the  country  on  the  heels 
of  the  former.  Huts  have  been  built  for  some  of  them,  of 
such  a  sort  that  few  will  live  in  them  ;  and  the  Toncawes  have 
none.  A  large  sum  of  money  was  expended  in  the  purchase 
of  clothing  for  them  ;  but  now  they  are  nearly  naked.  To 
this,  however,  the  Cadohadachos,  Shawanos  and  Oponaghkcs 


or  Delawares,  are  exceptions.  Among  all  the  bands  the 
chiefs  are  intelligent  men.  Some  of  them  as  much  so  as  any 
Indians  I  have  ever  seen.  My  camp  was  continually  filled 
with  them  and  the  Comanches,  for  ten  days,  and  we  lost  not 
a  single  article  of  any  kind,  even  of  the  slightest  value. 
Some  of  them  are  quite  industrious  ;  and  if  they  are  properly 
encouraged,  will  soon  raise  crops  of  corn  and  vegetables  suf- 
ficient for  their  support. 

The  Cai-a-was  are  a  people  of  Northern  origin,  who  came 
down  many  years  ago  into  the  prairie  with  dog  trains,  from 
the  Northwest,  having  no  horses.  Now  they  have  an  abun- 
dance. They  are  inveterate  horse-thieves,  and  always  at 
war.  I  do  not  know  and  cannot  learn  their  number.  A 
large  number,  it  is  said  two  thousand  of  them,  and  the  Ara- 
pahos,  were  not  long  since  gathered  at  Fort  Wise,  on  the 
Arkansas,  expecting  their  presents  from  the  Northern  Gov- 
ernment, which,  it  was  said,  they  would  not  get.  Arms  have 
been  given  them  by  that  Government;  rifles,  revolvers  and 
Minie  ammunition.  I  have  seen  the  rifle,  made  at  Lancas- 
ter, in  Pennsylvania,  taken  from  one  of  them,  whom  the  Cad- 
dos  killed,  a  little  while  before  I  was  at  the  agency;  and  those 
who  killed  the  Texan  soldiers  had  ammunition  boxes  marked 
with  the  initials  U.  S.,  and  Minie  cartridges.  It  will  l>3 
well  to  remember  this,  when  we  arc  reproached  with  the  en- 
listment of  civilized  and  christian  Indians. 

On  the  10th  of  August  I  left  the  Wichita  Agency,  with 
my  own  party,  our  escort  of  Creeks  and  Scminoles,  and 'about 
forty  Comanches,  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  the  Wichita 
mountains,  and  learning  by  actual  inspection  what  extent  of 
fertile  land  there  is  among  those  mountains  on  which  Re- 
serves might  be  selected  for  the  settlement  of  the  Comanches 
or  other  Indians.  By  the  treaty  with  the  Choctaws  and 
Chickasaws,  the  Government  has  the  right  to  place  in  the 
Leased  District  all  the  Comanches,  Shawnees,  Delawares  and 
Kickapoos,  wherever  they  reside,  and  any  other  tribes  whose 
ranges  are  not  north  of  the  Arkansas  river.  I  intended  to 
offer  the  Shawnees,  Kickapoos  and  Delawares  in  Kansas 
homes  in  that  District,  as  I  have  since  done ;  and  1  wished 
to  know  whether  there  was  any  country  in  the  mountains,  as 
I  have  no  doubt  there  is,  suitable  for  settlement  by  them  also. 

After  going  as  far  west  as  the  limestone  hills  on  the  north 
of  the  main  Wichita  mountains  extended,  and  alono-  the 
north  side  of  these  hills,  to  Otter  or  Pecan  Creek,  about°sixty 
miles  from  Fort  Cobb,  I  was  taken  sick,  remained  so  for 


26 

eight  days,  and  was  compelled  to  return,  without  turning 
the  hills  as  I  intended,  and  exploring  the  country  on  the 
south  side  of  them  and  among  the  mountains. 

I  readied  the  Wichita  Agency  again  on  the  26th  of  August, 
remained  there  three  days,  and  returning  by  the  way  of  Fort 
Arbtickle,  reached  that  post  on  the  2nd  of  September,  and 
there  discharged  my  escort.  A  few  miles  beyond  it,  I  had 
met  two  gentlemen,  sent  to  me  by  the  principal  Chief  of  the 
Cherokees,  bearing  the  letter  from  the  Qhief  and  Executive 
Council,  inviting  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty,  which  is  marked 
O,  and  the  copy  of  the  address  of  the  Chief  and  of  the  reso- 
lutions of  the  General  Convention  of  the  Cherokee  people, 
which  is  marked  II. 

On  the  3rd  of  September  I  replied  to  this  communication 
by  the  letter  marked  I,  agreeing  to  enter  upon  negotiations 
for  a  treaty  on  the  25th  of  September,  and  requesting  the 
Chief  to  procure  the  attendance  at  the  same  time  of  delega- 
tions of  the  Osages,  Quapaws,  Senecas,  and  Senecas  and 
Shawnecs. 

My  letter  to  Mr.  Ross,  mention  of  which  is  made  in  these 
letters,  was  written  on  the  1st  of  August,  the  day  On  which 
I  concluded  the  Seminole  treaty;  and  a  copy  of  it  is  marked 
K.  When  I  received  the  reply  of  Mr.  Ross  to  my  letter  of 
the  6th  of  June,  I  determined  to  answer  it  when  I  should 
have  secured  the  adhesion  of  all  the  other  principal 
tribes,  in  the  hope  that  it  might  then  either  shake  his  reso- 
lution to  maintain  a  ({nasi  neutrality,  or  if  it  did  not,  that  it 
would  serve  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  Cherokee  people.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  I  sent  this  answer  to  him,  on  the  1st  of  Au- 
gust, I  at  the  same  time  sent  a  copy  to  Fort  Smith,  to  be 
published  there,  and  also  to  be  printed  in  pamphlet  form  and 
sent  into  the  Cherokee  Nation.  This  was  done,  and  perhaps 
not  without  some  good  effect. 

Being  again  detained  five  days  by  sickness  at  Boggy  De- 
pot, in  the  Choctaw  country,  I  reached  Park  Hill  in  the 
Cherokee  Nation,  on  the  24th  of  September,  and  there  on 
the  2nd  of  October  concluded  a  Convention  with  the  Chiefs 
and  headmen  of  the  Great  Osage  band ;  on  the  4th  of  October 
one  with  the  Quapaws  and  one  with  the  Seneca  tribe  and  the 
Shawnecs  of  the  mixed  band  of  Senecas  and  Shawnecs ;  and  on 
the  7th  of  October,  a  treaty  with  the  Cherokees. 

Treaties  have  thus  been  effected  with  all  the  Nations, 
tribes  and  bands  in  what  was  formerly  the  Southern  Super- 
intendency  of  Indian  Affairs,  that  is,  in  the  Indian  country 


south  of  Kansas,  west  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  north 
of  Red  river,  except  only  the  Little  Qsage  band,  numbering 
about  a  thousand  persons,  who  will  no  doubt  unite  in  the 
treaty  made  with  the  Great  Osage  band,  as  it  is  provided 
thoy  may  do,  and  the  Senecas  of  the  mixed  band  of  Scnecas 
and  Shawnees,  about  ninety  in  number,  in  whose  favor  a 
like  provision  is  made. 

Major  Rector,  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs  who 
had  returned  to  Fort  Smith  from  the  Wichita  Agency  when 
the  treaties  made  there  were  concluded,  again  met 'me  at 
Park  Ihll  at  my  special  request,  on  my  arrival  there,  aided 
in  negotiating  the  treaties  made  at  that  place,  and  returned 
with  me  to  Fort  Smith,  which  place  I  readied  again  on  the 
11th  of  October,  after  an  absence  of  four  months  and  a 
half. 

In  now  submitting  for  your  consideration  and  that  of  the 
Congress  the  treaties   concluded   by   me,  I   should  omit  the 
performance  of  a  simple  act  of  justice,  if  I  failed  to  bring 
to  the  notice  of  the   Government  the  fair  and   frank  manli- 
ness and  honesty  displayed  by  all  these   Indians  in  a  very 
remarkahte  degree,  in  all  their  propositions  and  discussions 
Ibis  was  not  less  strikingly  the  case  among  the  ruder  tribes 
and  bands  than  among  the  more   advanced  and   civilized  na- 
tions.    In   negotiating  with  the   Cherokees,  I    had    to  deal 
only  with  the  Chief  and  Executive  Council,  who   were  per- 
fectly well  informed  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  our  affairs 
political  and  military.     With  all  the  other  nations  and  tribes 
or  their  Delegations,  I   opened  the   business  in   hand   by  a 
talk,  carefully  interpreted  to  them,  and  in  which  I  informed 
them  as  fully  as  possible  of  the  fact  and  nature  of  the  quar- 
rel between  the  I  nited  and  the   Confederate   States    of  the 
existence  of  hostilities,  of  the  interest  which  they  themselves 
had   in   the   controversy,  in   common   with    us,   and    of  the 
hazards  they  would  incur  by  uniting  with  us.      [  did  this  in 
order  to  deal  fairly  with  them,  and  that  they  might  never  be 
able  to  plead  that  they  had  been  misled  or  had  embarked  in 
the  joint  cause  for  want  of  proper  information,  as  an  excuse 
tor  repudiating  their  treaties  with  us. 

The  Cherokees  were  at  first  divided,  and  so  to  some  c\ter+ 
were  the  Creeks.  But  they  and  all  the  others,  when  the 
terms  of  the  treaties  came  to  be  discussed,  met  me  in  a 
spirit  of  the  most  perfect  frankness,  never  asked  for  any- 
thing wrong,  illiberal  or  extravagant,  and  only  desired  to 
have  the  just  claims  and  rights   of  their  poople  recognized 


2S 

and  secured,  and  to  make  such  advances  towards  political  in- 
dependence as  they  might  well  ask  and  we  concede.  They 
were  well  informed  as  to  the  condition  of  our  public  affairs, 
carefully  considered  and  weighed  and  thoroughly  understood 
all  the  provisions  of  the  treaties,  were  skilful  diplomatists, 
often  surprising  me  by  the  acuteness  of  their  perceptions 
and  their  clear-sightedness,  and  know  well  how  important  to 
us  their  alliance  and  friendship  were;  and  still  I  never  de- 
tected the  least  desire  on  their  part  to  take  advantage  of  their 
increased  importance  to  us,  in  order  to  extort  from  us  any- 
thing that  the  United  States  when  they  were  most  prosper- 
ous might  not  have  granted.  I  do  not  think  there  is  a  sin- 
gle provision  in  any  of  the  treaties,  granting  them  any  right 
or  privilege,  recognizing  any  claim,  or  providing  for  any 
payment,  that  I  would  not  cheerfully  have  inserted,  if  I  had 
been  treating  with  them  in  behalf  of  the  United  States  ten 
years  ago. 

The  principal  features  of  the  treaties,  with  the  Cherokees, 
Creeks,  Seminoles,  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws  arc  the 
following  : 

1st.  The  Confederate  States  agree  to  pay,  regularly  and 
annually,  hereafter,  to  each  nation,  all  annuities,jinnual 
payments,  and  annually  accruing  interest  on  moneys  unin- 
vested, due  them  by  the  United  States  under  former  treaties  ; 
and  to  pay,  immediately  on  the  ratification  of  each  treaty, 
all  arrearages  of  the  same,  for  the  year  1861,  and  previous 
years,  due  by  the  United  States. 

2d.  The  Confederate  States  assume  the  duty  of  collecting 
and  paying  over  to  each  nation  the  principal  and  interest  of 
the  stocks  or  bonds  of  any  of  the  Confederate  States,  in 
which  its  funds  are  invested  and  agree  to  request  such  States 
to  pay  the  same  to  the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States, 
as  Trustee  for  each  nation. 

3d.  The  Confederate  States  guarantee  to  each  nation  the 
final  settlement  and  full  payment,  upon  and  after  the  resto- 
ration of  peace  and  the  establishment  and  recognition  of  their 
independence,  of  all  moneys  belonging  to  such  nation,  and 
invested  in  United  States'  stocks  or  in  the  stocks  or  bonds 
of  any  Northern  State ;  and  of  all  other  moneys  justly  due 
and  owing  by  the  late  United  States,  under  existing  treaties, 
to  such  nation,  or  people,  for  itself,  or  in  trust  for  individ- 
uals :  To  which  end  all  provisions  of  former  treaties,  by 
which  any  benefit  or  privilege  was  secured  to  each  nation, 
are  declared  to  continue  in  force. 


29 

4th.  The  lands  owned  by  each  nation  under  previous 
treaties,  are  guarantied  to  it  in  fee  simple,  with  power  to 
sell  parts  of  the  same  to  individuals  ;  with  reservation  of 
tracts  for  the  Agencies  and  for  Forts  and  Military  pons, 
and  the  right  of  way  for  roads  ;  and  with  reversion  to  the 
Confederate  States,  if  the  nation  abandons  the  land,  becomes 
extinct,  or  sells  to  any  other  State,  nation  or  power. 

5th.  It  is  provided  that  the  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws  shall 
be  entitled  to  a  Delegate  in  Congress;  the  Creeks  and  Semi- 
noles  to  one,  and  the  Chcrokees  to  one  ;  each  Delegate  to 
have  the  privileges  possessed  by  Delegates  from  Territories, 
and  such  compensation  as  shall  be  fixed  by  Congress. 

6th.  It  is  provided  that  a  District  Court  of  the  Confed- 
erate States  shall  be  created  for  the  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw 
country,  and  one  for  the  Cherokee  country  ;  to  which  latter 
the  Creek,  Seminole,  Osage,  Qua  paw,  Seneca  and  Seneca 
and  Shawnee  countries  may  well  be  attached,  as  parts  of  the 
same  District,  no  Court  being  provided  for  in  either  of 
these. 

7th.  It  is  provided  that  the  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  conn- 
try  may  be  erected  into  a  State,  whenever  the  people  of  the 
two  nations,  by  vote'  regularly  taken,  express  their  desire 
that  this  may  be  done ;  and  it  is  further  provided  that  the 
Creek,  Seminole  and  Cherokee  countries  may  become  parts 
of  such  State  whenever  the  people  desire  it. 

On  their  parts,  these  different  nations  accept  our  Protec 
torate,  become  our  wards,  consent  that  our  intercourse  and 
certain  other  laws  shall  be  extended  over  their  country,  and 
agree  to  furnish  troops ;  and  two  regiments  of  Cherokoes, 
one  of  Creeks  and  one  of  Choctaws  are  already  in  our  se  - 
vice,  while  the  Creeks  and  Choctaws  each  offer  another,  and 
the  Seminoles  and  Osages  each  five  hundred  men.  It  is  to 
be  regretted  that  not  more  than  twenty-five  hundred  of  these 
arc  armed,  or  can  arm  themselves,  with  rifles  or  other  fire- 
arms, and  that,  as  yet,  only  about  seven  hundred  rifles  have 
been  furnished  by  the  Government,  and  that  these  are  small- 
bore squirrel  guns,  of  little  worth,  famished  the  Choctaw 
regiment. 

Of  the  obligation  of  the  Confederate  States  to  pay  the 
debts  due  by  them  and  the  other  States  of  the  United  States, 
before  the  separation,  to  these  nations,  I  have  already 
spoken.  We  should  be  bound  to  pay  them,  even  without  a 
new  promise.  We  do  not  and  could  not  repudiate  treaties, 
to  which  we,  as  well  as  the   Northern   States,  were  parties, 


30 

especially  when  we  ask  the  other  party  to  annul  them  as  far 
as  the  North  is  concerned,  and  regard  them  as  if  made  ex- 
clusively with  us,  as  the  successors  of  the  United  States. 

The  whole  amount  of  arrearages  of  annuities,  annual 
payments  and  interest,  provided  to  be  paid  upon  the  ratifi- 
cation of  the  treaties,  or  by  the  30th  of  December  next,  is, 
according  to  the  estimate  herewith  submitted,  $265,927  2.3. 
The  whole  of  this  amount,  ought  to  be  paid  in  gold 
and  silver.  The  Indians  have  always  been  so  paid,  and 
the  evil  effect  of  now,  on  the  first  payment,  offering  them 
Treasury  notes  alone,  would  be  very  great.  Part  of  the 
moneys,  payable  in  bulk,  to  the  Treasurers  of  the  Nations, 
may  be  paid  in  Treasury  notes,  but  where  they  are  to  be 
distributed  among  the  people,  it  is  absolutely  indispensable 
that  specie  should  be  procured;  and  I  hope  the  necessary 
provision  may  be  made  for  that  purpose.  For  the  residue 
of  the  moneys  payable  and  to  be  expended  during  this  year 
and  the  half  of  the  next,  Treasury  notes  may  be  used. 

Even  peace  with  these  Nations  is  well  worth  all  the 
moneys  due  them,  and  what  it  may  cost  to  procure  gold  and 
silver ;  and  the  whole  sum  payable  will  be  a  small  mat- 
ter, in  comparison  with  the  expense  of  the  regiments  it 
would  have  required  to  overpower  them,  if  they  had  taken 
up  arms  against  us.  This  consideration  would  be  deemed 
all-powerful,  if  any  other  were  necessary  than  this,  that  the 
debts  are  our  debts,  are  eminently  just,  were  chiefly  con- 
tracted on  account  of  lands  that  we  now  own,  and  could  not 
honorably  be  avoided,  evaded  or  postponed. 

And  it  only  remains  to  be  added,  that  without  assuming 
these  annual  payments,  and  guaranteeing  these  debts,  not  a 
single  treaty  could  have  been  made,  and  we  should  have 
lost  the  whole  Indian  country,  or  only  gained  it  at  enormous 
expense  and  loss  of  life,  as  prize  of  war.  If  the  assump- 
tion and  guarantee  had  not  been  eminently  fit  and  just,  it 
was  imperatively  and  inexorably  necessary. 

The  guarantees  of  title  in  fee  simple  to  the  lands  of  the 
different  Nations,  were  hut  guarantees  to  them  of  what  had 
been  granted  them  by  solemn  treaties  and  conveyed  to  them 
by  patents  from  the  United  States,  and  to  both  of  which  we 
were  parties;  with  the  exception  of  the  right  of  sale  or 
other  disposition  to  individuals,  which  is  inseparable  from 
a  title  in  fee  simple,  and  the  withholding  whereof  from  them 
by  the  former  Government  was  a  fraud.  The  provisions  of 
the  present  treaties  which  allow  it,  were  indispensable  if  we 


31 

would  induce  them  to  open  their  country  to  settlement,  and 
therefore  are  more  for  our  benefit  than  theirs. 

By  Article  XII.  of  the  Treaty  of  28th  November,  1785, 
the  absolute  right  "to  send  a  Deputy  of  their  own  choice 
to  Congress"  was  given  to  the  Cherokees  ;  and  by  Article 
VII.  of  the  Treaty  of  20th  December,  1835,  it  was  agreed 
that  they  should  be  entitled  to  send  a  Delegate  to  the  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  United  States,  whenever  Congress 
should  make  provision  for  the  same  ;  which  Congress  never 
was  asked  by  the  Executive  to  do  ;  and  by  Article  XII.  of 
the  Treaty  with  the  Choctaws,  of  27th  September,  1830,  the 
application  of  that  Nation  to  be  allowed  a  Delegate  in  Con- 
gress, was  "  presented  in  the  Treaty  that  Congress  may 
consider  of  and  decide  the  application  ;"  which  the  Execu- 
tive never  asked  Congress  to  do.  The  degree  of  civilization 
and  respectability  to  which  these  five  Nations  have  attained, 
entitles  them  to  be  heard,  at  least,  in  the  Councils  of  the 
Confederate  States;  and  they  eminently  deserve  this  for 
their  loyalty  to  us  in  the  present  crisis. 

It  may  not  be  inapposite  to  remark,  that  by  the  Creek 
Treaty  of  the  year  1836,  and  the  Choctaw  Treaty  of  the 
year  1831),  all  the  persons  of  each  Nation  who  chose  to  re- 
main, and  did  for  a  certain  length  of  time  remain  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  became  thereby  citizens  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  that  large  numbers  of  those  now  west  of  the 
Mississippi  became  so  in  that  way.  If  it  was  thought  pro- 
per thus  to  make  them  citizens,  it  cannot  be  improper  to 
allow  the  same  people  Delegates  in  Congress.  And  that 
there  are  in  each  Nation  many  persons  well  qualified,  by 
their  intelligence  and  information,  to  represent  their  people, 
and  who  would  icflect  no  discredit  on  the  Congress  itself, 
no  rnc  who  knows  them  will  doubt. 

To  establish  courts  of  justice  among  them,  is  but  to  carry 
out  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  which  guarantees  to 
every  man  a  speedy  and  impartial  trial  by  a  jury  of  the  dis- 
trict where  the  offence  is  committed  ;  a  right  which  has  been 
habitually  denied  to  these  Indians.  They  have  been  tried 
for  criminal  offences,  in  courts  held  in  a  neighboring  State, 
by  juries  of  another  race,  ignorant  of  their  nature  and 
modes  of  thought  and  springs  of  action ;  so  that,  from  this 
and  other  causes,  these  trials  have  generally  been  monstrous 
acts  of  cruelty  and  injustice. 

By  the  present  treaties,  all  white  men  who  have  inter- 
married in  the  Indian  country,  and  reside  in  it,  or   who  arc 


32 

allowed  to  vote  at  elections,  are  to  be  regarded,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  criminal  code,  as  Indians,  subject  to  the  Indian 
laws,  and  to  be  tried  by  the  Indian  courts.  To  this  just 
provision  few  will,  I  hope,  be  found  to  object;  since  one 
who  voluntarily  becomes  a  citizen  of  any  country,  and  one 
of  its  people,  ought  not  to  be  exempt  from  the  operation  of 
its  laws,  and  the  jurisdiction  of  its  tribunals.  The  only 
ground  of  objection  that  can  seem  reasonable,  to  the  crea- 
tion of  District  Courts  in  the  Indian  country,  is,  that  white 
men,  only  temporarily  in  the   Indian  country,  and  charged 

with  the  commission  there  of  a  grave  offence,  oun;ht  not  to 

I'll- 

be  tried  by  a  jury  of  Indians;   and  this  ground  of  objection 

may  be  removed  by  a  provision  in  the  act  establishing  these 
courts,  to  the  effect,  that  when  a  white  man  is  to  be  tried, 
he  may  demand  and  have  a  jury  of  white  men,  to  be  sum- 
moned from  an  adjoining  State. 

To  provide  a  means  by  which  the  whole  Indian  country 
may  ultimately  become  a  State,  was  the  only  mode  of  solv- 
ing the  question  as  to  the  destiny  of  these  Nations.  With- 
out  a  violation  of  the  good  faith  and  honor  of  the  Confede- 
racy, they  cannot  be  formed  into  Territories,  and  much  less 
annexed  to  a  Territory,  or  to  a  State,  without  their  consent ; 
and  that  consent  will  never  be  given.  They  are  obstinately 
wedded  to  their  system  of  holding  their  lands  in  common, 
in  consequence,  chiefly,  of  their  fear  that  if  it  is  parceled 
out,  speculators  will  in  the  end  defraud  the  ignorant,  un- 
wary and  improvident  out  of  their  possessions.  We  cannot 
force  them  to  open  their  lands  to  settlement,  to  accept  re- 
serves and  sell  the  residue,  or  even  to  sell  portions  at  their 
own  land  offices,  without  violating  the  most  solemn  promises, 
and  doing  an  act  of  iniquity. 

In  the  meantime,  each  Nation  is  determined  to  maintain 
what  it  terms  its  nationality,  and  no  two  of  them  will,  at 
present,  consent  to  form  one  people.  The  Choctaws  and 
Chickasaws  were  under  one  government,  but  the  latter  never 
rested  until  this  was  undone,  and  separate  governments 
established;  and  the  same  was  the  case  with  the  Creeks 
and  Seminoles. 

To  require,  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  admission  of 
part  or  all  of  the  Indian  country,  as  a  State,  a  population 
equal  to  the  ratio  of  representation  in  Congress,  would  be 
virtually  to  postpone  the  creation  of  such  a  State  indefinite- 
ly. These  people  increase  not  at  all  by  immigration,  and 
very  slowly  by  the  processes  of  nature.      One  plan  only  is 


33 

possible,  and  that  is,  to  receive  them  as  a  State,  and  thus 
induce  them  to  sell  part  of  their  lands,  and  permit  their 
numbers  to  increase  by  immigration. 

If  it  should  seem  to  any  one  that  too  much  is  conceded 
to  any  of  these  Indians,  let  him  but  learn  the  great  extent 
and  the  varied  resources  of  the  Indian  country,  with  its  fine 
streams,  its  splendid  scenery,  its  soil  unexcelled  in  the 
world  for  fertility,  its  vast  undulating  prairies,  on  which  all 
the  herds  of  the  world  could  feed,  its  capabilities  to  produce 
grain  of  every  kind,  hemp,  tobacco,  cotton,  fruit,  wine  and 
wool ;  its  immense  basins  of  coal,  its  limestones,  marbles, 
granite,  iron,  lead  and  salt,  which  will  make  it  some  day  the 
very  finest  State  of  the  Confederacy,  and  he  will  begin  to 
comprehend  that  the  concessions  made  the  Indians  are  real- 
ly far  more  for  our  benefit  than  for  theirs  ;  and  that  it  is  we,  a 
thousand  times  more  than  they,  who  are  interested  to  have 
this  country,  the  finest,  in  my  opinion,  on  the  continent, 
opened  to  settlement  and  formed  into  a  State. 

The  President  is  well  aware  of  the  importance  of  this 
country,  not  merely  to  Louisiana,  Texas,  and  Arkansas,  but 
to  the  whole  Confederacy.  It  is  both  a  military  and  political 
necessity  that  it  should  form  a  part  of  our  own  country.  In 
all  probability  many  years  will  elapse  before  even  the  Choc- 
taws  and  Chickasaws  will  avail  themselves  of  the  provision 
authorizing  the  formation  of  a  State  Government;  and  it  is 
very  desirable  to  lead  them  to  look  upon  it  as  a  thing  that  is 
at  some  day  in  the  future  to  occur. 

The  Cherokees,  Choctaws,  and  Chickasaws  have  regularly 
constituted  governments,  constitutions  like  our  own,  two 
Houses  of  the  Legislature,  and  courts  of  justice ;  and  the 
Creeks  have  lately  adopted  a  similar  constitution.  When 
they  once  open  their  country  to  settlement,  its  unrivaled 
fertility  and  beauty  will  attract  to  it  a  vast  emigration,  and 
it  will  become  the  great  pasture-ground  and  grain-field  of 
the  Confederate  States.  Its  value  and  importance  can  hardly 
be  over-estimated ;  and  I  consider  the  provisions  in  the 
Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  treaty,  for  the  surveying  of  their 
lands  at  some  future  day,  and  the  erection  of  their  country 
into  a  State,  as  the  greatest  success  achieved  by  these 
treaties,  since  heretofore  every  movement  in  that  direction 
had  been  decidedly  repulsed. 

To  the  special  provisions  contained  in  the  principal 
treaties,  involving  expenditure  of  money,  I  shall  allude  in  a 
3 


34 

few  words  only,  that  this  report  may  not  exceed  all  reasonable 
dimensions. 

After  the  terms  of  the  Cherokee  treaty  were  settled,  the 
advance  of  $150,000,  to  be  used  for  national  purposes,  and  of 
$50,000  on  which  interest  is  annually  to  be  paid,  were  asked 
for  by  the  authorities  of  that  nation,  not  as  a  right,  but  in 
the  way  of  an  appeal  to  the  generosity  of  the  Confederate 
States.  I  thought  it  not  wise  to  refuse  to  grant  what  was  thus 
asked,  since  that  nation  occupies  a  country  very  near  to 
Kansas,  and  likely  to  be  invaded,  and  its  people  had  been 
greatly  divided  in  opinion.  The  whole  amount  is  but  an 
advance  on  the  price  of  a  tract  of  country  between  Kansas 
and  Missouri,  for  which  the  treaty  agrees  to  pay,  in  case  it 
should  be  lost  to  them.  If  it  should  not  be  lost,  they  will 
dispose  of  it,  and  the  moneys  so  to  be  advanced  will  be  re- 
paid out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale,  since  we  shall  undoubtedly 
hold  a  lien  on  the  land  for  such  advances. 

I  had  found  it  necessary,  as  it  was  evidently  just,  to  guar- 
antee the  payment  to  the  Chcrokees  of  the  price  paid  by 
them  in  1835  for  the  land  in  question,  with  interest  at  live 
per  cent,  per  annum  from  that  sale,  in  case  of  its  loss  by  the 
chances  of  war  or  the  terms  of  a  peace.  If  we  had  not  given 
this  guarantee,  we  should  have  had  little  right  to  ask  them  to 
enter  into  an  alliance  with  us  ;  and  our  proffered  protectorate 
would  have  been  but  a  sham. 

So  far  as  I  had  the  data  to  do  so,  I  have  stated  the 
amounts  due  the  different  tribes,  and  the  sums  invested  for 
them,  and  in  what  stocks  such  investments  were  made.  And 
where  a  claim  was  undeniably  valid  and  just  and  the  amount 
certain,  its  payment  is  absolutely  provided  for,  while  in  some 
other  cases  I  provided  for  an  investigation  of  the  claims  at  a 
future  period. 

Two  amounts  of  $12,000  and  $10,300  are  thus  provided 
to  be  paid  to  the  Ckerokees,  and  one  of  $5,000  to  the  Semi- 
nolcs.  Provision  is  made  in  the  Seminole  treaty  for  inves- 
tigating a  claim  of  certain  Seminoles  for  services  of  slaves 
detained  from  them,  and  in  a  supplementary  article  of  the 
Creek  treaty,  for  investigating  those  of  the  Apalachicola 
band  for   losses  sustained  by  their  forced  removal  west. 

In  the  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  treaty  provision  is  made 
for  the  ascertainment  and  payment  of  the  value  of  a  tract  of 
country  belonging  to  those  nations,  now  included  within  the 
limits  of  Arkansas.  The  facts  of  the  claim  were  too  plain 
to  admit  of  dispute,  and  the  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  Dele- 


35 

gates  were  unwilling  to  agree  to  a  treaty,  unless  some  pro- 
vision was  made  for  settling  the  matter,  in  such  a  way  that 
their  people  should  not  be  put  to  the  expense  of  employing 
counsel  or  agents  to  procure  its  settlement  and  payment. 

Provision  is  also  made  for  the  settlement  of  an  account  of 
the  Chickasaws,  in  strict  compliance  with  the  stipulations  of 
a  former  treaty  hitherto  contemptuously  disregarded  by  the 
United  States. 

In  the  Creek  treaty  provision  is  made  for  the  future  pay- 
ment to  certain  persons  who  were  orphans  in  1836,  and  their 
descendants,  of  moneys  belonging  to  them,  being  the  pro- 
ceeds of  certain  reservations  of  lands  made  for  them  by  the 
treaty  of  that  year. 

By  the  article  supplementary  to  the  treaty  with  the  Re- 
serve Indians,  provision  is  made  for  an  investigation,  by  the 
President,  of  the  claim  of  the  Wichita  Indians,  for  com- 
pensation for  the  country  between  the  False  Washita  and 
Red  River,  which,  if  their  claim  be  well  founded,  as  I  have 
no  doubt  it  is,  was  entirely  just. 

To  the  Choctaws,  it  is  agreed  that  $50,000  shall  be  paid 
in  advance,  on  account  of  moneys  due  them,  and  to  the 
Chickasaws  $2,000,  for  the  purchase  of  arms ;  but  no  new 
annuities  are  agreed  to  be  paid,  nor  any  moneys  not  hereto- 
fore due  them  to  be  paid,  to  the  Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  Creeks 
or  Cherokees. 

In  favor  of  the  Seminoles,  it  is  agreed  that  the  payments 
for  educational  purposes  and  blacksmiths,  shall  be  continued 
for  a  limited  term  of  years,  and  that  $1,000  shall  be  given 
them  for  the  erection  of  school  houses.  To  this  I  was  in- 
duced, by  the  great  bravery  and  the  loyalty  of  this  people, 
many  of  whom  were  so  lately  in  arms  against  us,  and  who 
are  now  all  true  to  the  cause  of  the  South ;  and  because  I 
considered  that  no  object  could  more  commend  itself  to  the 
President  than  that  of  educating  the  yonng  among  these 
tribes. 

The  expiration  of  all  annuities  payable  to  the  Osages,  the 
utter  poverty  of  the  Quapaws,  and  the  wants  and  good  con- 
duct of  the  Senecas  and  Shawnees,  induced  the  new  provis- 
ions in  their  favor,  absolutely  necessary  to  their  comfort  and 
advancement. 

xVnd  the  importance  of  maintaining  peace  on  the  frontier 
of  Texas,  by  settling  all  the  Prairie  tribes  on  Reserves, 
will,  I  hope,  be  deemed  by  the  President,  to  have  warranted 


36 

the  provisions  made  for  feeding,  clothing  and  supplying  those 
tribes  and  bands. 

I  have  allowed  a  moderate  compensation  to  the  Creek, 
Seminole,  Choctaw  and  Chickasaw  delegates  who  negotiated 
their  treaties ;  but  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  purchase  the 
aid  of  any  of  the  chiefs  of  any  of  the  tribes,  by  gratuities  or 
payments  to  be  made  to  them  personally.  The  only  appa- 
rent exception  is  contained  in  the  secret  article  of  the  Creek 
treaty ;  and  what  is  therein  contained  was  not  asked  as  a 
condition  of  loyalty,  but  only  desired  as  a  mark  of  honor  and 
confidence. 

The  whole  amount  of  my  expenditures  during  the  five 
months  and  more  of  my  absence  from  home  on  this  service, 
including  provisions  furnished  Indian  Councils,  presents  to 
Indians,  pay  of  escort,  subsistence,  transportation  and  com- 
pensation of  Secretary  and  Assistant  and  of  Delegations  that- 
accompanied  me,  expresses  and  interpreters,  is  $18,747  20. 

Of  this  sum,  $6,914  86,  were  expended  for  the  purchase 
of  provisions  supplied  to  the  people  at  the  several  councils  ; 
$677  39  for  presents  to  the  Indians,  made  chiefly  to  the  Re- 
serve Indians  and  to  the  Comanches  ;  $2,992  57  for  the  pay 
and  allowances  of  the  escort  of  Creeks  and  Seminoles ; 
$2,397  02  compensation  of  Indian  delegates  and  interpre- 
ters, and  $1,550  compensation  of  Secretary  and  Assistant. 

All  the  supplies  furnished  by  me  were  purchased  on  credit 
or  with  moneys  advanced  in  the  Indian  country  by  the  mer- 
chants, to  whose  liberality  and  patriotism  I  bear  willing  tri- 
bute. I  did  not  find  one  who  was  not  loyal  and  true,  and 
anxious  to  aid  me  by  every  means  in  his  power. 

In  closing  this  report  I  hope  to  be  pardoned  by  the  Pre- 
sident for  making  one  or  two  suggestions  that  seem  to  me 
to  merit  consideration. 

To  regard  an  Indian  as  a  creature  radically  different  from 
a  white  man  is  a  great  mistake.  They  are  a  people  with 
the  same  nature  and  affections  as  ourselves,  .and  controlled 
by  the  same  motives  and  springs  of  action.  Nor  are  they 
a  faithless  and  treacherous  people,  nor  by  nature  jealous  or 
suspicious,  but  trusting,  frank  and  loyal.  It  is  not  to  our 
credit  that  we  know  so  little  of  them,  and  it  is  as  little  to 
onr  advantage. 

We  have  made  them  jealous  and  suspicious,  by  the  treat- 
ment they  have  received  at  our  hands ;  and  they  are  natu- 
rally unforgiving  and  revengeful,  especially  never  forgetting 
a  broken  promise  or  violated  pledge.     In  addition   to  the 


37 

wrongs  done  them  by  treaties,  obtained  by  the  bribery  of 
Chiefs,  by  threats  and  intimidation,  and  sometimes  written 
one  way  and  read  another,  the  Agents  of  the  Government 
have  robbed  them  continually,  and  denial  of  justice  at  Wash- 
ington has  forced  the  employment,  by  them,  of  attorneys 
at  exorbitant  compensation,  which  was  shared  by  clerks  in 
the  Indian  bureau,  and  sometimes  by  members  of  Congress. 
Coffee  sent  to  a  tribe  in  the  north-west,  not  many  years  ago, 
was  exchanged,  it  is  said,  sack  for  sack,  for  corn.  Southern 
tribes  were  removed  west  by  contract,  at  so  much  per  head, 
and  the  profits  of  the  contractor  were  realized  from  the  star- 
vation of  the  miserable  Indians.  Provisions  furnished  them 
by  contractors  were  issued  by  hollow  weights,  and  measures 
with  false  bottoms,  and  large  fortunes  were  accumulated  by 
the  practice  of  these  laudable  modes  of  thrift. 

Treaties  with  them  were  violated,  without  scruple,  even 
within  the  last  six  years,  almost  as  soon  as  the  ink  was  dry 
upon  them.  Incompetent  agents  were  appointed,  to  reward 
political  services,  and  who  took  the  offices  in  order  to  share 
the  fees  paid  by  the  Indians.  These  persons,  continually 
absent  from  their  posts,  cared  little  for  those  under  their 
charge,  except  as  a  source  of  profit ;  and  the  vast  extent  of 
newly  acquired  country  had  so  enlarged  our  Indian  relations, 
that  the  system  had  become  too  unwieldy  to  be  managed ; 
and  the  Indian  office  was  at  once  the  most  corrupt  and  the 
most  incompetent  in  the  Government. 

The  laws  regulating  intercourse  with  the  Indians,  enacted 
at  an  early  day,  when  all  the  tribes|  were  wandering  barba- 
rians, had  ceased  to  suit  our  Southern  tribes,  who  had  es- 
tablished free  governments  and  cultivated  the  arts  of  peace 
and  civilization ;  while  unreasonable  enactments,  interpre- 
ted and  applied  in  a  narrow  and  technical  spirit,  eternally 
harassed  and  annoyed  these  tribes. 

I  earnestly  recommend  a  revision  of  the  laws  regulating 
trade  and  intercourse  with  the  Indians,  that  they  may  be 
made  more  to  accord  with  justice  and  good  sense. 

I  earnestly  recommend  an  immediate  revision  of  the  regu- 
lations based  on  those  laws. 

I  earnestly  recommend  that  all  the  treaties  made  by  us 
with  the  Indian  tribes  be  published  in  a  volume,  followed  by 
the  new  Intercourse  Act  and  Regulations,  and  by  copies  in 
full  of  all  acts  of  Congress  in  respect  to  crimes  and  offences, 
that  are  in  force  in  the  Indian  country. 

And  I  especially  hope  that  all  Agents  for  Indian  tribes 


38 

may  be  peremptorily  required  to  remain  at  all  times  at  their 
Agencies,  and  be  never  allowed  to  be  absent  without  special 
permission,  given  for  valid  and  sufficient  reasons. 

I  most  urgently  and  anxiously  entreat  that  the  treaties 
now  made  may  be  speedily  ratified,  and  the  moneys  due  the 
Indians  promptly  paid ;  and  that  all  the  Indians  who  desire 
to  enter  into  our  service  may  be  received  and  armed,  in 
order  that  they  may  feel  that  their  interests  and  ours  are 
identical,  and  that  they  stand  upon  an  equal  footing  with 
ourselves,  defending  the  same  rights  and  receiving  the  same 
treatment  as  their  fellow  soldiers  of  our  own  race. 

If  the  promises  I  have  made  them  are  faithfully  complied 
with,  and  they  are  hereafter  treated  with  justice  and  gener- 
ously dealt  with,  their  country  is  secured  to  us  for  all  time. 
And  I  need  hardly  say  again  to  the  President  that  even  their 
peaceful  inactivity  would  save  us  the  expense  of  more  than 
three  regiments,  and  that  their  co-operation  is  worth  more 
to  us  than  all  the  moneys  which  these  treaties  bind  us  to  pay 
them,  and  which,  in  the  absence  of  any  new  promise,  we 
should  equally  have  owed  them. 

In  the  hope  that  my  action  may  not  be  disapproved, 
I  am  the  President's  most 

Obedient  servant, 

ALBERT  PIKE, 
Commissioner  of  the  Confederate  States  to  the  Indian  Na- 
tions West  of  Arkansas. 


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